American Documentary Film

Projecting the Nation

Jeffrey Geiger

Historical overview of major documentary forms and practices in the USA

Case studies, including Nanook of the North, The Plow that Broke the Plains, Grey Gardens, and Fahrenheit 9/11

Analysis of critical debates relating to filmic representations of reality

American Documentary Film

Projecting the Nation

Jeffrey Geiger

A Publication of Edinburgh University Press

Description

Richard Wall Memorial Award 2012 - Finalist. What key concerns are reflected in documentaries produced in and about the United States? How have documentaries engaged with competing visions of US history, culture, politics, and national identity? This book examines how documentary films have contributed to the American public sphere - creating a kind of public space, serving as sites for community-building, public expression, and social innovation. Geiger focuses on how documentaries have been significant in forming ideas of the nation, both as an imagined space and a real place. Moving from the dawn of cinema to the present day, this is the first full-length study to focus on the extensive range and history of American non-fiction filmmaking. Combining
comprehensive overviews with in-depth case studies, Geiger maps American documentary's intricate histories, examining the impact of pre- and early cinema, travelogues, the avant-garde, 1930s social documentary, propaganda, direct cinema, postmodernism, and 'new' documentary. Offering detailed close analyses and fresh insights, this book provides students and scholars with a stimulating guide to American documentary, reminding us of its important place in cinema history.

American Documentary Film

Projecting the Nation

Jeffrey Geiger

A Publication of Edinburgh University Press

Author Information

Jeffrey Geiger is Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex, where he founded the Centre for Film Studies in 2001. Other books include Facing the Pacific: Polynesia and the U.S. Imperial Imagination (2007), the co-edited Film Analysis: A Norton Reader (2005, expanded edition 2013), and Cinematicity in Media History (2013).

American Documentary Film

Projecting the Nation

Jeffrey Geiger

A Publication of Edinburgh University Press

Reviews and Awards

"This is nothing less than a tremendous achievement ... and the new benchmark in concise appreciation of American documentary film history."--Ian Scott, H-Net

"The richness of Geiger's synthesis will make it an excellent text for courses in the subject and also a resource outside the classroom. The book will be a particularly important acquisition for libraries with limited holdings on documentary film. Highly recommended. All readers."--Ken Nolley, Choice

"American Documentary Film is well-reasoned and well-written.... subjects like the relationship between documentary form and New Deal politics with groups like Nykino and the Film and Photo League resonate within his argument for documentary as the coalescence of personal and organizational links between practitioners and theorists, radical politics and aesthetic experience."--Susan Ryan, Cineaste

"A scholar writing about or teaching the propaganda documentaries made during World War II will surely want to consult chapter 5.... Similarly, the beginning of any course that deals with the origins of documentary film could do no better than to assign Geiger's first chapter, which explores the cultural climate in the 1890s that was ripe for the introduction of documentary film."--Carl Rollyson, Journal of American Studies